By Steve Agbota
The Apapa Command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) yesterday, said it impounded 133 containers of unregistered pharmaceutical product, including tramadol in 2020.
Speaking at a media briefing, the Customs Area Controller of the command, Comptroller Mohammed Abba-Kura, said most of the pharmaceutical products don’t have manufacture and expiry date, adding that the seized drugs also lack addresses of where they were produced.
He, however, said the consumption of the drugs would cause harm to Nigerians health if they have found their ways into the open markets.
Accordingly, he said the command made a total 318 seizures with Duty Paid Value (DPV) of N21.197 billion. These figures, according to him, almost tripled the total seizures for the year 2019, which stood at 112 with total Duty Paid Value (DPV) N12.5 billion. “Some of the seized items included; 133 containers of unregistered pharmaceutical products including tramadol, 58 containers of parboiled rice, 30 containers of vegetable oil, 31 containers of used clothes and shoes and 13 containers of used tyres and other sundry items,” he added.
He said the export unit of the command also witnessed a boost in its activities, saying that the command processed export rose from 262,095 metric tonnes in 2019 to 1,311,365 metric tonnes in 2020.
According to him, the Free on Board (FOB) value for the exported items equally increased from $132.760 million to $340.885 million within the period under review.
He pointed out that the Naira equivalent of the exported items was estimated at N104.310 billion at 306 per US dollar, adding that the exported items include bars, agricultural and mineral products among others.
He revealed that the command between the months of January to December, 2020 collected N518.046 billion revenue and remitted same to the federation and non-federation accounts of the Federal Government respectively.
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